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Monday, December 17, 2012

Sara's Surgical Journey

Hello all!

First off, I want to say thank you for all the love and support that we have received leading up to this major (and possibly life changing) surgery for Sara! Its already been quite a journey just getting ready.

With that said, I will be posting updates to this post as often as they become available to me. Sara's surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30am on Dec. 18th, and I have been told it will last approximately 5 hours.

(All times listed below are local (Colorado) time!)

7:57am - I just came out to the waiting room from watching Sara fade off to sleep in the OR. They use gas to knock her out, and then do all the IVs and pokes after she's asleep. It took her a while to fall asleep cause she kept trying to take the mask off. But through it all, she's shown little fear this morning! She's a trooper!

Sara did great this morning on the way to the hospital. She was in good spirits, and it even started snowing as we got closer to the hospital. In pre-op, she continued with her good mood, but was shy with the doctors. She did answer their questions and was cooperative...for the most part. She was even still smiling as we walked down the hall to the OR. She thought mommy and daddy looked pretty funny all dressed up like doctors. The nurse told me it would be a couple hours before the first update, and then I should expect one every hour after that (give or take).

Lord, please watch over my baby as she goes through this journey. Guide the hands of her amazing surgeons and staff, and please help her to have as little pain as possible once she wakes up. Please grant her a quick recovery. Amen.

9:06am - I just got the first call from the OR. It took them a while to get all the IVs and other tubes in, so they didn't actually get the surgery started until about 9am. Let the waiting continue!

10:08am - I just got a call saying that they are almost done!! All the hardware is in and Sara is stable. Then nurse said they had a great team that worked really efficiently and they also didn't have to do as much repair as it was thought would be needed. They are closing right now and will be starting to put the cast on soon. The nurse said that it could take an hour or so to get the cast on. Hopefully next time I update it will be to say that she's done and heading to recovery!

11:01am - Sara will be in recovery by noon. She is having her cast put on now. Next time I update will be after we've talked to the doctor and moved Sara out of recovery and into her room upstairs. It will probably be a couple of hours until then!

1:44pm - Sara is upstairs in her room, and doing well. She's still really out of it and is mostly unresponsive (staring into space) unless the nurse has to mess with her and tries to take her blankets off to look at her. She did throw up a little bit of pain medication they gave her in post-op when we arrived upstairs, but the nurse thinks that's just because of all the movement of the bed on the way here. She's been fine since!

When she woke up, the first thing she said was she wanted to move her legs! My heart just broke for her. Its going to be a long 8 weeks. She currently has a nerve block in her leg for pain control. It should last about 24 hrs. They also gave her some IV pain meds, so hopefully we can keep her comfortable through the night at least.

I'll update again later tonight after everyone goes home. Lots of people are here to make sure she's doing well. And its nice to know all this support is here! Hopefully I'll get a couple pictures up tonight as well. And thank you so much to all of you who have already used the link I sent out to send Sara a cheer card from the hospital website. They were delivered about 15 minutes after we came up here, and they brought the first smile to her face. Thank you for that!!

You can find more info about Sara's surgery and the remainder of our stay at the hospital by clicking here.

2 comments:

I've been thinking about you and Sara. Lots of love and prayers for a successful surgery. Prayers for no complications and an easy transition once you make it home. I pray that God will hold his hands over the hospital and surgeons during Sara's surgery. I pray that everything will be as painless as possible and Sara is smiling and laughing and WALKING soon!

I am blessed to have my daughter, Sara, in my life. And although she brings more challenges then most children because of her NF, I think it makes myself and the people around us appreciate life even more. We are blessed to have amazing family and friends to share this adventure with, and to count on when times are rough! Being a single mom isn't always easy, but being her mother is the best thing that ever happened to me!